Evergrande boss Hui close to becoming China’s richest man

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Hands up if you're very rich: Hui Ka Yan, chairman of Evergrande Group, at a news conference during the Two Sessions, the annual parallel meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference, in Beijing on 9 March 2017Credit:
Chinanews

7 August 2017 • 4:30pm

Wu Xiaobo

Hui Ka Yan’s net worth recently overtook that of Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, and was second only to Alibaba’s Jack Ma and Tencent’s Ma Huateng, according to the Forbes real-time ranking of Chinese billionaires.

Analysts expect Mr Hui to take the richest Chinese man’s crown if Evergrande’s shares rise another 20 per cent.

Mr Wang was China’s richest man in the Forbes 2017 ranking of billionaires released in April, with net worth of $31.3bn, but Mr Hui’s wealth has bulged as a result of the strong rise of the company’s equities. On the Hong Kong stock exchange, its share price has risen from HK$4.95 on 3 January to a peak of HK$23.80 on 27 July before falling back to HK$19.42 (£1.89) on 4 August.

Mr Xu currently holds 10.16 billion of the company’s shares (77.87pc), according to public data.

Hong Kong-listed Chinese property companies have staged robust rallies since the beginning of this year.

The share surge has come after a better-than-expected first-half forecast. The company has predicted that first-half net profits will triple year-on-year to HK$21.38bn over rises in average property sales price and total floor space.

The real estate developer made HK$7.129bn net profits in the first half last year.

Hong Kong-listed Chinese property companies have staged robust rallies since the beginning of this year. The share price of Sunac China Holdings more than tripled and that of Country Garden more than doubled.

Wanda, which has been seeking an initial public offering (IPO) of its property unit Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties, is moving forward with what it calls an “asset-light” model with big asset sale deals.

It has recently entered into an agreement to sell its 91pc equity in 13 tourism projects to Sunac China for 43.84bn yuan ($6.52bn) and 77 hotels to Guangzhou R&F Properties for 19.9bn yuan to try to reduce liability.

This article was originally produced and published by China Daily. View the original article at chinadaily.com.cn